Winemaker Notes
Noble and generous, a glory of Old Piedmont, it is a wine suited to very long aging. Barolo is the absolute master of the dining room. It conquers the palate with strength, harmony and fullness and maintains its power at length.
A great wine for important dishes, red meats roasted on a spit or grilled, game, dishes of gourmet white and red meats and ripe cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is linear and so racy with a structure and length and focused energy that takes you long and deep. It’s medium-bodied with dried strawberry, citrus and spice. Tight at the end. Classicism with transparency. Drink after 2029.
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Wine Spectator
A beam of cherry and red currant courses through this racy red, revealing flashes of rose and wild herbs, with a mineral underpinning. This is persistent, with a long aftertaste that emphasizes the pure fruit. Best from 2026 through 2042. 5,833 cases made, 2,772 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Barolo Marcenasco is an international classic, and I have had the fortune of following this wine over 20-plus vintages. I always like the unassuming personality of Marcenasco. It gives you character but never stretches too far in any one stylistic direction. This vintage shows some sweet oak and cinnamon, but you also get plenty of bright fruit. You could fault it for a little too much oak, which appears with more strength in 2020.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Marcenasco is a classy entry-level offering from Ratti. Medium in body and gracious, with tons of La Morra charm, the Marcenasco is very pretty. Crushed flowers, sweet red berry fruit, cinnamon and orange peel are some of the notes that grace this polished, sensual Barolo.
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Wine Enthusiast
Crushed raspberries and ripe black cherries dusted with sweet spices lift from the glass of this Barolo. Showcasing elegant tannins that frame the generous fruit flavors and allow the savory herbal undertones to stand tall in the glass finishing with lifted acidity. Drink Now - 2045.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The bright ruby-colored 2020 Barolo Marcenasco is fresh and lively in the glass, with peppery spices, bright red cherries, rose petals, and potpourri. Light on its feet, it’s on the leaner side of the spectrum but has a graceful and elegant stony texture, with fine tannins and a chalky finish. An easy-drinking red, it will do well served with a light chill and as a straightforward wine to enjoy over the next couple of years.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.